JUNE 4 + 5

MAIN STAGE EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE | DIGITAL PERFORMANCE

2021

Cole Lewis, Patrick Blenkarn + Sam Ferguson

Under the glow of a flickering screen, a daughter reconstructs her deceased father—pixel by pixel, contradiction by contradiction.

2021 is a live performance where theatre, AI, and video-game storytelling converge, blurring the boundary between human remembrance and machine logic. An audience member steps into the role of Brian, an unhoused veteran reliving his final weeks inside a looping digital hospital: a labyrinth of corridors, bureaucratic dead ends, and fleeting human contact. Guided by his daughter’s narration, fragments of data become playable memory. Each decision glitches reality a little more.

How do we provide dignity in death to those we fundamentally disagree with? Part elegy, part experiment, 2021 exposes the tenderness and terror of digital resurrection. It asks not whether machines can think, but whether memory itself is a kind of simulation.

SHOWTIMES

Thursday, June 4 @ 7:30pm

Friday, June 5 @ 7:30pm*

*ASL interpreted performance

TICKETS

RUNTIME

90 mins, durational

VENUE

Alderney Landing Theatre

PRICE

Pay-What-You-Can
($25/$35/$45 + HST)

SEATING

General Admission Stadium Seating

AUDIENCE NOTES

2021 includes flashing lights, audience participation, violence, crude language, and references to war, racism, and sexism. Participation and active spectatorship is a central part of 2021.

Guilty by Association

Guilty by Association (GbA) is an interdisciplinary performance collective that shifts its process with each new project. Led by Co-Artistic Directors, Cole Lewis + Patrick Blenkarn, they seek to expand what theatre can do, devising work from design ideas, exploring modes of storytelling, and scheming to fuse media to the stage.

Cole Lewis (she/her) is a mom and mad theatre artist from St. Catharines, Ontario. She specializes in creating live performance from design ideas, exploring new modes of storytelling, and fusing technologies to the stage. Her practice includes directing, playwriting, and the design of moving image works. Twice nominated for Dora-Awards, Cole’s practice uses humour, design, and technology to explore notions of class and violence, expose questions of bias, and unsettle standard conceptions of ‘truth’ to explore alternative futures. She has an MFA in Directing from Yale and her thoughts on performance have been shared at LMDA, Howlround, FOLDA, Yale CCAM, and Canadian Theatre Review.

Patrick Blenkarn (he/him) is an artist working at the intersection of performance, game design, and visual art. His research-based practice revolves around the themes of language, labour, and democracy, with projects ranging in form from video games and card games to stage plays and books, with subjects as diverse as the labour of donkeys to the valuation of art to historical date farming practices in Iraq. He is a polyglot, programmer, animator, musician, and stage director. He is also the co-creator of asses.masses, co-founder of STUDIO FUNFUG, and co-founder of videocan, the national video archive of performance documentation.

Sam Ferguson (he/him) is an award-winning sound designer/composer from Toronto. After moving to Vancouver to study under acclaimed electroacoustic music composer Berry Truax he returned to Toronto where he became involved with theatre. This experience led him to enroll in the Yale School of Drama where he received an MFA for sound design. Since graduating he has returned to Toronto and has been working in the industry ever since.

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CREDITS

CO-CREATION, DATA CURATION, PERFORMANCE Cole Lewis

CO-CREATION, PROGRAMMING, PERFORMANCE Patrick Blenkarn

CO-CREATION, PROGRAMMING, MUSIC + SOUND DESIGN Sam Ferguson

3D MODELLING AND ENVIRONMENTS Eric Ing

2D ILLUSTRATION AND ANIMATION Clarissa Picolo

LIGHTING DESIGN Itai Erdal

SCENIC DESIGN Helen Yung

PROJECTION DESIGN + TECHNOLOGIST Wladimiro A. Woyno R.

SHOW OPERATORS Sam Ferguson, Alex Grozdanis, Christopher-Elizabeth

TECHNICAL DIRECTION Alex Grozdanis

AI CONSULTANT David Rokeby

DRAMATURGICAL CONSULTANT Fatma Sarah Elkashef

MOVEMENT CONSULTANT Heidi Strauss

DISABILITY PRODUCER Anika Vervecken

EARLY PHASE COLLABORATORS Emma Cuzzocrea, Ezri Fenton, Laura Maieron, Shaan Tahir-Mehdi, and Daibei Wang

Produced by Guilty by Association

Co-Produced by STUDIO FUNFUG

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Developed in association with the National Arts Centre of Canada’s National Creation Fund, The Elbow Theatre, and in part through Mitu’s Artists at Home and Mitu’s Expansion Works

Developed with the support of Canada Council for the Arts, Tarragon Theatre, Nightswimming Theatre, Design + Technology Lab, The Chrysalis, DART at Brock University, Playwrights Workshop Montreal, Precursor Lab, Theater im Pumpenhaus, and BMO Lab

ACCESS NOTES

ASSISTIVE LISTENING DEVICES

Phonak Roger FM/DM System available at Alderney Landing Theatre. Automatically connect via Wall Pilots or borrow a Telecoil device to sync with hearing aids and cochlear implants. Devices with headphones are also available. Please see the Box Office for assistance onsite.

ACCESSIBLE TICKET PRICES

All performances have pay-what-you-can-afford pricing. If cost is still a barrier, please email info@EasternFrontTheatre.com. Volunteers see shows free of charge! Sign up here.

TICKETING FEES

Our tickets and passes are sold through Tixr, which adds processing fees for both Tixr and Alderney Landing as well as HST. Tickets are also available to be purchased at the door, pending availability.

COVID

Masks are available on site and encouraged/appreciated but not required. Seating is by general admission and social distancing may not be possible. Alderney Landing Theatre achieves 8 ACH (Air Changes per Hour).

BABYSITTING

EFT offers free onsite childcare at select events. Children must be registered in advance. Sign up will open the week before the event.

TRANSIT ACCESS

The Halifax Transit Dartmouth Ferry arrives directly at Alderney Landing, and Alderney Gate is serviced by Halifax Transit buses #5, 6+, 53, 54, 55, 62, 158, 159, 161, 165.

PHYSICAL ACCESS

The Theatre is on the second level of Alderney Landing, accessible by passenger elevator and stairs. Parking is available onsite, with curbside dropoff and automatic doors at the main entrance to the building. Alderney Landing is connected to Alderney Gate by pedway, accessible by elevator, escalator and stairs.

STADIUM SEATING

Fixed stadium seats fold down and are 16.5 inches deep and 20 inches wide from the inside of each (shared) armrest. Front row seating is on the same level as the entrance and can be reserved in advance by emailing info@EasternFrontTheatre.com. There are stairs leading to the rest of the rows, 7 inches high and 17 inches deep. There is no handrail. Armless chairs are available upon request and will be placed in the front row, they are 16 inches deep and 15.5 inches wide. For assistance, or to request priority seating before the house is opened, please check in with EFT Staff or Volunteers.

ARMLESS SEATING

Armless seats are 16 inches deep and 15.5 inches wide. Seating is on the same level as the entrance. For assistance, or to request priority seating before the house is opened, please check in with EFT Staff or Volunteers.

BATHROOMS

There are two all gender bathrooms in the rotunda lobby, one with toilet stalls only, and one with toilet stalls and urinals. Both bathrooms are equipped with various hygiene products.

ENVIRONMENTAL SENSITIVITIES

We aim to provide a scent-free environment, and make every effort to use products that are scent-free where possible (including alcohol-based hand sanitizer). We encourage all patrons to be mindful of the effects of strong scents, and ask that patrons avoid wearing or using scented personal products while onsite.

COMMENTS, QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS?

If you have any questions about the accessibility measures in place for individual performances or workshops, please email access@easternfronttheatre.com.

FESTIVAL FUNDERS

FESTIVAL SUPPORTERS

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